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What causes childhood obesity?

Childhood obesity is caused by children consuming too many calories and not getting enough exercise.

While the cause of obesity seems straight forward, then why is there a rise of childhood obesity in recent years?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of what leads to childhood obesity are environmental factors that determine if children have a healthy choice when it comes to eating and if they have the opportunity to get enough physical activity.

The CDC lists the following as some reasons kids have unhealthy choices presented to them:

- Sugary drinks at school

- Unhealthy snacks available at school

- Large presence of advertising of unhealthy foods

- Not all states require childcare facilities to provide healthy food and physical activity

- Lack of physical education classes at school

- Lack of safe, appealing places in the community for kids to play and be active

- Large portion sizes

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Charlie Morton pitched five-hit ball for seven innings, Neil Walker hit a review-aided home run and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 Sunday in a testy game in which benches cleared after All-Stars Andrew Mcutchen and Brandon Phillips were hit by pitches.